trip to spain and france

so josh and i took a little 10-year anniversary trip to spain and france for ten days starting september 30th. we planned it over columbus day weekend so josh just had to miss 5 days of work( most of new england has off on columbus day- a bonus moving from ohio to mass. + rhode island). we have been planning this trip for awhile and researching out the yazoo. and i have to say that rick steves should get a hold of our itinerary because it was pretty awesome. the last time i had been to europe was more than ten years ago. and life with twins is a whirly twirly mess some days, so we thought we would treat ourselves to a little hand holding, picture taking, art seeing, wine drinking and tapa eating in an area that is filled with history (in some cities back to the romans), art, and architecture. our  very, very kind parents took turns taking care of the girls. all of their needs were met and then some so they barely thought about us. which makes me think, why don't we do this more often?  it was a win, win for all parties involved.

we took over 2,000 pictures because we were blown away by the beauty, so i thought that i would break the pictures up (not all of them of course-just the very best ones) in different posts. so more to come. anyway, here's where we went and i'll talk more about the details in later posts, but just wanted to give you a general idea today:

day 1:
7 pm direct flight from boston to madrid.

day 2:
landed in madrid. picked up rental car and stopped in segovia.
traveled on to bilbao where we stayed overnight.

day 3:
guggenheim museum in bilbao.
scenic drive to san sebastian where we stayed for 2 nights.

day 4:
san sebastian

day 5:
drive to provence, france and stay for 2 nights in arles.

day 6:
arles, france.

day 7:
drive through provence. towns including les baux, saint remy, gordes, roussillon, and aix-en- provence. spent night in cassis, france.

day 8:
drive to barcelona, spain where we dropped off our rental car and stayed for 3 nights.

day 9:
barcelona

day 10:
barcelona

day 11:
train from barcelona to madrid.
direct flight from madrid to boston.


seeing that i am a total romantic and visually oriented person, i totally fell in love with europe and have been dreaming about it all week! the outdoor cafes, local markets in every town, pedestrian friendly cities. bike paths galore, a mix of modern and old architecture, fabulous graphically designed signs, crowded playgrounds where parents and kids meet and socialize, not needing an excuse to sit down and relax with a coffee or wine, and pintxos. what is your favorite thing about the european way of life?